five bikes stolen in our camp. two were recovered and can be called "misplaced" due to someone under the influence and taking the wrong vehicle. The other three were never recovered. In my ten years at Burning man we have only experienced one stolen bike in which usually has at least 40 people...something was amiss this year. I hated the fact that I felt the need to lock my bike everytime I went to the bathroom!

Also we had a good relationship with our neighbors, but they had a small group of hangers on that kept casing our camp. There were several nights, including the burn, that we all felt the need to do a doublecheck of our valuables and we left a few people behind the watch the place while the rest of us got to go out for the night.

The thing cost me $500 many years ago. It's still in good shape, but only because (1) I don't exercise near as much as I ought to and (2) I treat my toys well.

Aside: I used to race bicycles, and never had anything "better" than a very light used bike which cost *maybe* $350 (in 1980s money). The first time I saw a made-to-measure Trek for a non-professional biker (going for $1000 or so) I almost passed out.

Well, I did get my bike (that i got for free from the Burner hostel) stolen at the burn.

It was a simple enough bike, with a hostel yag and name on it.
O left it lying next to the second lamp post at the man ned of 9:00 when i came back from the burn it wasn't there. had to treck back to the city on foot. bummer.

I hope that someone does scan the playa after the festival for left bikes and does something (even if it's just to bring them back as giveaway bikes the folowing year) with them.

The cleanup crew has to remove all left bikes from the playa. A bike is a
pretty big piece of MOOP. No idea what they do with them, though. And I
suspect that a lot of the abandoned ones get collected on the way out by
late leavers.

Someone put a bike on my trailer on Sunday night. Not just left it in camp,
not just leaned against the trailer, someone actually lifted it up and loaded
it on the trailer.

Might be a good idea to put your camp and address to the camp on your bikes so if someone stole it and left it somewhere, the person who finds it knows where it belongs. I didn't do that but thought about it and think I'd do it next time. It was my first year and I heard about all the stuff that gets stolen especially bikes so I brought my lock with me and locked it up 90% of the time and didn't have a problem.

Black Rock City is a community therefore, you should treat the area where you are camping the same. Get to know your neighbors. Invite them over. Tell them a beer is waiting for when they need a break. I bring a case or two of Bud- the only place I drink it is on the playa- to share with others. So in a day or two, I know most of the people within a perimiter of several camps or more. I see someone strange grabbing things or doing things at a camp when the campers are gone. I don't hesitate to question them. But I've camped in an area of regulars for many years so I need to learn only a few new faces.

You're an interactive community so act like one or go camp in Reno's casino parking lots!